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If I could offer a piece of advice to parents of little ones, it would be this:don’t forget to think about parenting beyond the now.

I know that feeding schedules and potty training, and getting that afternoon nap nailed down are hugely important. And I know you want your little ones to be healthy, adventurous eaters, and to learn how to share, and to say their ABCs. But I want to remind you that those things will happen and then you’ll have the whole rest of their lives to be their parents. What will you do with that time?
You’ll want to have already built relationship with them.
You’ll want to have made heart connections with them.

Now is the time to start thinking about how you will make those connections. You need to plan for the future by creating space and time for relationship building now.
One of the simplest ways I’ve found to do this is by hiking with my kids.

Yep.Hiking.

My kids and I hike together every single week, often more than once. And while our hikes are partly about having fun, getting exercise, being with our friends, and taking our learning into the great outdoors, they are also an intentional part of my parenting. Hiking is time I spend making heart connections with my kids.

What I found early on in my parenting journey is that hiking provides space for talking. As we walk together on a trail, our bodies are busy and there is so much to see and be excited about together. There is actually time for talking when we’re hiking, because there are so few distractions on the trail. That is a precious commodity in our busy world. All these things open the door for different kinds of conversation to come easily and naturally.

Beyond talking, hiking also provides a simple, beautiful way for us to just be together. There is something very intimate about having nothing else to do but pick up shells, point out birds, admire trees, and share the thrill of finding a really awesome bug or snake. As we walk, there is a lot of, “hey Mom!” as each of them falls in step beside me and tells me all the different things on their mind. Someone often walks up beside me and slips their hand into mine. For the ones that think they are past the hand holding stage, I make a point of ruffling their hair, of hugging them, of looking into their eyes and saying, “I love to be with you.” No one is plugged into anything but the world around us and into each other. It’s a precious, sweet time, and one I value and protect fiercely.

The older my kids get, the more I recognize the critical importance of this ritual we have made together. It is my prayer that as they become teenagers and young adults they won’t feel awkward talking with me in this way because we’ve been doing it since they were small. It’s not forced or uncomrfortable because we aren’t going somewhere “just to talk”. Instead we ‘re on the trail already, for the sheer pleasure that hiking and being out in nature brings us. The conversations and heart connections that happen as a result are simply the natural overflow of our time together on the trail.

Like I said, it’s such a simple solution. But for me it’s already proved to be profoundly wonderful and valuable for my family.

Now keep in mind, none of this just happened. This has been an intentional part of my parenting journey. When my kids were little I made hiking a priority. I worked hard to cultivate a love for hiking in each one of them. Because that is a huge part of this equation! I wanted my kids to love hiking so that they’d actually want to hike with me as they grew up. And I believed that if I started hiking with them when they were little, I’d normalize it and it would become a beloved part of our family life.

Thus far, that has proven to be true. And I don’t see their love of hiking dimming in any way. On the contrary, it just keeps growing. They have their eyes set on bigger and better hikes. They want to climb to the top of the mountains we’ve only hiked part way up. They want to go on overnight backpacking trips. They want to hike the Alps!
And I want to do all those things right along side them, talking, connecting and building relationship with them along the way.

Here are some practical ways I’ve cultivated a love of hiking with my kids, and how you can too.

Make hiking a priority. That means setting aside time every week or at least every month to hike. It might mean giving up a Saturday morning to hike as a family, or choosing a mid week hike instead of another activity or class. Your kids will never love to hike if they never do it.

Make hiking fun. Don’t ever make the hike about getting in the miles. Stop and play in a creek. Collect shells and rocks. Climb trees. Watch butterflies. Look for lizards. Admire wildflowers. Bring along field guides to help you identify the flora and fauna you see. Bring art supplies to draw them if that’s something your kids would enjoy. When a hike is about enjoying and experiencing nature it becomes more enjoyable when little legs get tired.

Start with short, doable hikes. When your kids are very small, don’t try to hike 8 miles or climb a mountain. You’ll end up carrying them and they won’t be experiencing the joy of hiking on their own two feet. Instead, go to a nature center, with flat, marked trails, and let them hike at their own pace. As they grow older and stronger, add mileage onto your hikes. They’ll get better and better at hiking and you’ll all love it more.

Pack good snacks and extra water. This is key to a great hike! I like to make sure that I have some of my kids’ favorite snacks on hand. They all pack their own backpacks with their own snacks and then I carry a small cooler bag with meat and cheese for sandwiches. I have a baguette strapped to my pack, and always have an extra water bottle inside. I also bring a special treat, a few cookies, a chocolate bar or even gum, for when kiddos are tired at the end of a long hike. Having good eats make a hike even more of a special adventure.

Bring friends on a hike. I make a point to hike with our friends and without. Because hiking with only my kids provides opportunity for lots of one on one talks and relationship building. But hiking with friends allows relationship building to happen between my kids and their buddies. And even for me and their friends. I love having time to talk and connect with my kids’ friends. I want to know those little people too. Besides, hiking with friends makes those long, hard hikes a lot more fun. I know my kids will go further with their buddies and surprise themselves by what they can do. Also, it’s fun for us mamas to hike with our friends too. Especially when we’re nervous about venturing out on the trails on our own.

Hike the best trails. This may seem like and obvious one, but its not really. Often we stick to the trails that are easy, safe, or close to home. But if we search out that trails with the beautiful waterfalls, or the amazing wildflower bloom, the incredible views, or the best climbing tree, we keep making hiking fun and exciting. We’ll keep them wanting more.

There are lots of different ways for my children to spend their time. It seems like much of the world around me is telling me to enroll my kids in classes and sports and activities. But I notice that most of these things are pulling my kids away from me rather than toward me. I want more than anything to keep my kids close, both now and as they grow up. Building relationship with them matters so much more to me than them being in all the “right” activities. So we’ll keep hitting the trail and making those heart connections along the way.
I love this verse as a reminder to treasure what is really important:
“But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:20-21

If you are a parent of young kiddos, or older ones, figure out ways to draw your children to you and how to keep them near as they grow up. Don’t fall prey to the assumption that they’ll drift toward their friends as soon as they become a pre-teen. That doesn’t have to be your story.
But remember, if you want to write another story, you actually have to write it. Otherwise, it might write itself and you might not like the direction its going.
So make a plan!
Get out on the trail, or start doing that thing that will bring your family together now and in the years to come. I mean, I’m planning on hiking with my grandkids. I’ve got this story written for many chapters to come!

“He doesn’t despise the real woods because he has read of enchanted woods; the reading makes all real woods a little enchanted.”
CS Lewis
///This blog post is best read after listening to with my interview about books and nature on one of my favorite podcasts, Read Aloud Revival.
You can listen to Sarah and I talk books in episode 62, available here.///

One of the most important parts of the education I am giving to my kids is nature study. Now I know you won’t find nature study in any of the SAT prep classes, and you can’t take nature study as a college prep class either. And I am certain most people would not consider it an academic pursuit. But there are so many reasons why I incorporate nature study into my children’s education, and academics are just one of them.

First of all, I use nature study to cultivate a love for the natural world in my kids. I firmly believe that a love for nature will have a positive influence on them for the rest of their lives. Loving nature will give them a place of peace and refreshment in a busy world. Rather than seeking out those things elsewhere, perhaps in ways that are not even healthy, they will already know the quiet joy and tranquility that comes from a walk in the forest, or by hearing the crash of waves. That is a lasting gift.

Spending time in nature also teaches my kids the habit of curiosity and observation. They notice new things and wonder about them every time we are out in nature. Those are precious qualities to grow in my kids that will spill over into every other part of their life.

A love for nature will also cause a respect for it. And raising kids who respect nature is a passion of mine. That respect will grow into a passion for caring for nature and for preserving it. We need kids who see themselves as stewards of this beautiful earth God created.

And that brings me to the most important reason I pursue nature with my kids; cultivating a love for nature will bring my children closer to the Creator of nature.
I’ve seen it in my own life.
I know God better by spending time in His creation. And I know Him further by studying His creation.
Through nature, God comforts me, and brings me immense joy.
He reminds me of His power, His majesty, His goodness, His care, and His creativity. Every time we are out in nature, we see God. It continually points us back to Him.
Of all the gifts nature has to offer my kids, I believe this one is the greatest.

And so I work hard to constantly and consistantly fill our lives with nature. From simply spending time in the back yard, to weekly hikes in places close to home, and bigger trips to the grandest, most beautiful nature spots we can get to. I try to seep their lives in nature.

It takes work.
It takes planning. It takes gas. Iit takes time. It takes us away from our school books. Iit takes getting dirty, getting tired, getting frazzled, and carrying a baby, and maybe a toddler, on my body. For years.
It takes sacrifice.

Now maybe you are reading this and you are nodding in your head in agreement, while at the same time your heart is sinking.

“I don’t have those things,” you think.

“I don’t have a back yard.”

“We can’t spare the gas money.”

“I have no one to go hiking with.”

“I hate getting dirty.”

“We don’t have grand, natural spaces at our fingertips.”

“I can’t do this.”

Oh but friends, yes you can!

Perhaps it will look different for you than it does for me, but that is OK!
You can offer nature to your kids in the way that works best for you.
You may see only the roadblocks, barring your way to experiencing nature with your kids.
But there is a way, if only you will look at it differently.

I love this quote by Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods.
He says, “If you can’t live in the land you love, love the land you’re in.”

That quote really resonates with me because I have had a love for and a longing for nature for as long as I can remember. Yet, I grew up going camping only a handful of times, and we never had anything remotely like a weekly, or even monthly hike.
My mom was not what you’d call “outdoorsy”.
She loved and appreciated nature, but in a comfortable, more controlled way.
Like bird watching from the living room, or working in the garden.
She did not enjoy outdoor adventures, unless my dad was along.
And even then, they often made her nervous and stressed her out.
And she didn’t like dirt–on her, on us, or in the house.
She also had extensive back injuries that often made physical activity very difficult for her.
So I can’t recall her ever taking us on a hike.

And even if all those things weren’t standing in her way, our family was often strapped for money. So the extra money needed for long drives to spots of natural wonders, often just wasn’t available.
Many times my dad took our only car to work, so then we couldn’t even drive to nearby nature spots.
When my dad did have time, he took us on bike rides on country roads, out hiking, and to the beach as often as he could.
But it was never as much as I longed for.

As a result, I spent countless hours in the empty field across the street from our house. In spring, I had picnics hidden in the tall grass, with only the sky for my ceiling. I loved to feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my cheeks as I picked golden, California poppies to bring to my room. I filled it with the nature I so loved.
I spent hot, summer afternoons, reading or playing dolls in the cool shade of our avocado trees. Or up in the tree forts my brother, Dad, and I would build in its branches.
In fall, there were no trips to see the autumn color. But I’d gather leaves from the sweet gum trees in our neighborhood, and press them in my books.
I convinced my friends to join my sea shell club.
I collected rocks.
I interacted with nature in whatever ways I could.

And when I look back on those days of my unfulfilled longing for backpacking trips, and tide pool explorations, I see that some of my most significant interactions with the natural world, came not from time actually spent in nature, but from reading about it in books. The books I read were full of characters who loved nature as much as I did. And they were written by authors who knew about the natural world, and made it an important element in their books.
Those books filled a void in my nature hungry soul. They fanned the flame and fed it at the same time.

Books are an incredible way to bring nature into your child’s life. Especially if those road blocks are up, making your access to nature more difficult.
And if you are a family that already makes nature outings a regular part of your life, then reading books where nature plays an important role will only enhance your time outdoors.

“A good book is a magic gateway into a wider world of wonder, beauty, delight, and adventure. Books are experiences that make us grow, that add to our inner stature.” Gladys Hunt.

Reading these sorts of books introduced me to nature I might never have know otherwise. When I read The Yearling, I learned the names and characteristics of the flora and fauna of central Florida. Never in my life had I seen a swamp, or the dance of the whooping cranes, but after reading that beautiful book, I knew those places.
Nor had I been to the moors of England. But after reading The Secret Garden, I could feel their wild, cold, loneliness every winter, and their warmth and life in the spring.

Reading these books grew my love for nature in mighty ways. I began to look at plants, trees, and animals with new eyes. I wanted to know their names, just as they were named in the books I read. I can identify with the girl Richard Louv describes in his book: “One of my students told me that every time she learns the name of a plant, she feels as if she is meeting someone new. Giving a name to something is a way of knowing it.” I wanted to know more about the world around me. In the end, my love for literature did more for me than encourage a love for nature. It taught me about nature, and incited a passion in me to learn more.

I suppose you could say I am now living out my childhood dreams with my own children as we adventure and learn together in nature. I am extremely grateful that I get to give this kind of life to them.
I could use our time spent outdoors as all I offer them in the way of nature study. We do a lot. And combined with nature journaling the discoveries we make while expiring, it could be enough. But given my childhood experience of reading literature that filled my head and heart with a different kind of natural experience, I am careful to offer that to my kids as well.
In fact, I’d be hard pressed to decide if I derive more joy from sharing these favorite books with them or actually exploring nature with them. So I make sure we do both!

One of the ways I enhance our learning experience while we read, is to nature journal through our books. As we read, I ask the kids to listen for the names of plants and animals. I’ll jot them down when we come across them. Later, we will look those things up in our field guides or on the internet. Once we have identified them, they will draw the in their nature journals. In this way, we interact with flowers, trees, bugs, birds, and animals that are not part of our everyday life. Nature journaling through books has been an incredible way to expand our nature experiences.

If you are anxious to introduce your family to the wonders of nature that can be found in literature, you’re in luck! Because I’ve created a booklist just for you!
I’m including poetry that inspires a love for nature, some favorite picture books, and a larger list for the growing readers.
I hope these books give you all the joy and passion for nature that they’ve given to my children and to me.
Happy reading!

///You can also find me talking about books and nature often on my instagram feed
And in almost every episode of my podcast At Home.
Check them both out for more inspiration!///

Learning to Love Nature Through LiteratureA Booklist by Greta Eskridge

Picture Books:Mrs. Rumphius by Barbara CooneyThe Big Snow by Berta HaderA Tree is Nice by Janice May UdryGood Night Owl by Pat HuchinsThe Little Island by Margaret Wise BrownMake Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskeyThe Burgess Bird Book and other books by Thorton BurgessA Seed is Sleepy by Dianna AstonOne Small Square by Donald SilverTime of Wonder by Robert McCloskeyThe Little House by Virginia Lee BurtonThe Carrot Seed by Ruth KraussOwl Moon by Jane YolenThe Golden Book of Birds

Books for Older Readers:The Yearling by Marjorie Kinnan RawlingsHeidi by Johanna SpyriThe Girl From the Limberlost by Gene Stratton PorterThe Wind and the Willows by Kenneth GrahameMandy by Julie AndrewsMy Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead GeorgeThe Chronicles of Narnia C.S. LewisAnne of Green Gables and many other books by Lucy Maud MotgomeryThe Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson BurnettJames Herriot’s Treasury for ChildrenAll Creatures Great and Small by James HerriotThe Hobbit by J. R R TolkienCharlotte’s Web by EB WhiteWhere the Red Fern Grows by Wilson RawlsDanny, Champion of the World by Roald DahlLittle Britches by Ralph MoodyCaddie Woodlawn by Carol Ryrie BrinkIsland of the Blue Dolphins by Scott O DellThe Call of the Wild by Jack LondonSwiss Family Robinson by Johann David WyssLittle Women by Louisa May AlcottBirds Every Child Should Know by Neltje BlanchanPagoo by Holling Clancy HollingPaddle to the Sea by Holling Clancy HollingJohn Muir’s Book of Animals by John MuirBirds of the Air by Arabella BuckleyCubby In Wonderland by Frances Joyce

Poetry:
“September” by Helen Hunt Jackson
“Robin Redbreast” by William Allingham
“The Eagle” by Alfred Lord Tennyson
“The First Snowfall” by James Russell Lowell
“The Rooks” by Jane Euphemia Browne
“May Day” by Sara Teasdale
“Maker of Heaven and Earth” by Cecil Frances Alexander
“A Thanksgiving” by John Kendrick Bangs
“The Use of Flowers” by Mary Howitt
“Over in the Meadow” by Olive A. Wadsworth
“Silver” by Walter de la Mare
“Fog” by Carl Sandburg
“The First Bluebird” by James Whitcomb Riley
“Bird Song” by Laura Richards
“Hurt No Living Thing” by Christina Rossetti
“Daffodowndilly” by Christina Rosesetti
“Autumn” by Emily Dickonson
“At the Zoo” by William Makepeace Thackeray
“October’s Party” by George CooperTrees by Sara Coleridge

For many years now, I have been reading poetry to my kids,
From the time they were born actually.
My first aim was to simply get them to enjoy poetry.
To love the sound of it, the rhythm, the music, and the language.
When we started school, I kept reading them poetry.
One or two poems a day, part of our morning meeting–the way we began school every day.
After I read a poem a time or two, we’d talk about it.
I’d ask them questions like, “what do you think this poem is about?”
“What does it make you see?”
“How does this poem make you feel?”
“Do you think the poet had a message he wanted you to hear?”
Talking about the poems quickly became very natural and we all enjoyed it.
The next step was to slowly began introducing literary devices into our poetry talks.
Personification, alliteration, symbolism, allusion.
There were no tests or quizzes.
It was easy to introduce those terms and what they meant as they came up when we read.
I wanted these lessons to feel natural, never forced, or “schoolish”.
Instead I wanted them to be enjoyable, and yes, even fun.
The kids ate it up, and poetry became one of my favorite subjects to teach my favorite students.

Lately though, I’ve wanted to do more with poetry.
Or at least something different.
I had laid a strong foundation, and it seemed like the right time to build up.
Then the flash of idea came, and I decided to focus our poetry time on learning about one poet a month.
We’d immerse ourselves in their life and their work.
We’d read lots of their poems, memorize one or two, and illustrate some.
We’d learn a bit about their artistic contemporaries and the other art being made during their life time.
We’d even explore some of the history and what world events shaped their work.
I was excited!
It was time to go a little deeper in our poetry studies.

We started this month with our very first poetry study.
I chose e e cummigs.
For no other reason than I found an amazing book about him and wanted to have it in our collection.
I knew a great book would make all the difference in how the kids responded to the poet.
Turns out my hunch was right.
It has been the perfect place to start.

We’re only a couple weeks in and we’re all loving it.
Even though William says he’s not really a big fan of e e’s poems.
“They’re a little too weird,” he said.
But that’s perfectly OK with me.
That’s part of what these studies are all about.
I want to expose them to lots of different poets and poems and styles and voices, and to help them find the ones that resonate with them.
And the ones that don’t.
Like I’ve said before, I’m not just here to teach them to learn to read and write, add and subtract.
I’m here to make their world bigger.
I’m here to help them love to learn.
I’m here to light the fire.

So, just in case you’re interested in incorporating any of this into your school days, here is what we’re doing with our:e e cummings poetry study.

We read this book over the course of 3 days.
It helped to spread it out, allowing them time to think about who e e was, what he was doing, and become interested in his work.

Day 1:
Introduce the poet ee cummings, and begin reading the book abut his life, “Enormous Smallness.” Read about e e’s childhood and up to his graduation from Harvard University.
If you are not familiar with e e cummings (and yes, he liked his name spelt with all lower case letters) you can brush up on his life here.

Day 2:
Continue reading from “Enormous Smallness”.
Read of e e”s move to New York, his sojourn in France during WWI, and the start of his career as a poet.
Next we read one of his poems, “The Sky Was”.
That’s when the real fun began!
(You can find the poem here or in the book.)
The first time I read it to the kids, I stumbled and could hardly get through it.
I had to read it again, and then again, to really get through it and for it to make sense to us.
By the second reading the kids had gathered around me and pointed out the words that went together and we laughed at how silly and strange it was.
It was so much fun to see the way Cummings played with language, poetic form, and grammar.

And it was so good for them to see me struggling through a poem, not particularly enjoying it at first, but liking it more and more with each read.
Poetry can be hard work.
It takes patience and perseverance to read, understand, and enjoy it.
But having this experience with my kids, I am modeling for them the exact way I want them to approach a poem.
So I really, really, really suggest you approach this poem totally fresh when you read it to your kids.
Struggle with the poem.
Struggle alongside your kids.
But keep going.
You’ll be teaching your kilos such an invaluable lesson about reading poetry.

Next we discussed our own reaction to the poem, and how much more we liked it the first time we read it.
And then after we read it again, and again, and again, and again.
It was so great to see their opinions changing with each read.
We discussed the way other people responded to Cumming’s wild looking poetry when he wrote it.
I told them that in the next few days they’d get to illustrate “The Sky Was” in the way they saw it in their heads and they were quite excited about that.

Day 3:
I read “The Sky Was” again to get it thoroughly in our heads.
Each child looked at the poem as it was originally written by e e. (you can provide copies for them or just use the book and hold it up for them to see.)
Next I shared with them one of my favorite quotes about poetry by Samuel Taylor Coleridge:
“Poetry: the best words in the best order.”What does this quote mean?
Here’s how I explained it to the kids:
“Its so important to understand that poets choose every word in there poems with the utmost care.
They don’t have pages and pages to express an idea, paint a picture, or tell a story.
Instead they must do that in a few lines.
Therefore every word counts.
This is called word choice, or diction.”(further reading on diction and word choice here)

Next I had the kids underline or circle word choices cumming’s made in the poem that they thought were important.
They could do this individually on there own copies of the poem, or you could do it all together as a group on the white board.
Everyone shares one of their choices and why they think it is important to the meaning of the poem.

Then I wrote the poem in a more traditional style up on our white board.
I underlined each word connected to a color: spry, shy and cool.
We lined up our colored pencils and I asked them,” what kind of yellow do you see when you hear it described as “shy”?”
They immediately chose the lightest yellow in the bunch.
We did the same for the other colors.
We also talked about the word “luminous” and “spouting”.
“What other words could the poet have picked and why did he chose those particular words? How do they affect the image the poem makes in your head?”

Lastly we discussed the image this poem created in our minds.
What did we see?
Each one of us saw something different.
Some of us saw a whimsical picture with cotton candy clouds and lemons floating in the sky.
Others saw a train speeding through cool green hills, with a glowing yellow and pink sunset and dark brown shadows on the ground.
It was so much fun to hear everyone’s different reaction to the same words.

Day 4:
Kids copy “The Sky Was” into their literature journals.
( I use these simple notebooks by Moleskine for almost all my kids subjects. After years of trying to find the best way to keep their work in one place and organized, these have been the best idea. I like their simplicity and how easily they store. My kids have no issue with adding illustrations on the lined pages, but if yours do, that would be a drawback)

We talk about the new poems a bit while they draw, but don’t go into any detailed lessons.
We’re just enjoying the poems and what they bring to mind.

Day 5 and beyond:For the rest of the poetry study we will continue to read ee cumming’s poems–the five I’ve mentioned above and perhaps a few others.
Beyond the ones I have listed above, you’ll have to preview his poems before you read them to your kiddos. ee was famous for writing some erotic love poetry, as well as plenty more traditional love poems, and poems about nature and childhood.
Even if you only focus on these 5 poems and read them a couple of times over the course of the month, it will give your children such a great connection to the poetry of ee cummings.

Some additional activities I’ll do with my kids for this poetry study:*Memorize a poem–my kids have chosen “who are you, little i”
*Look for examples of imagery, simile and metaphor, hyperbole, and personification in cumming’s poems. You can brush up on other literary devices here, This activity can easily be done with the poems I have listed. Because cumming’s poems were so avant-garde, it can be hard to find traditional literary devices in his poems outside of word choice. Explain that to your kids and make looking for the other literary devices like a treasure hunt. They’ll be excited hen they find an example.*“Read A Poke In the I” book to explore more poems that play with whimsical poetic format. *Encourage kids to create a poem of their own in this model.*Discuss other poets and writers who have played with language and grammar like ee cummings did. Two great examples are Lewis Carol and James Joyce. We will read Lewis Carrol’s “Jabberwocky” and then we’ll read the first few lines of James Joyce’s “Finnegan’s Wake“.
*Read poems by Shel Silverstein, focusing specifically on poems he wrote that combined words and pictures to create a non traditional poetic form. If you don’t have Silverstein’s books, you can do a google image search for these poems and print them up for your kiddos. “A Closet Full of Shoes” “A Light in the Attic” and “Here I Go Down Circle Road”*Read these poems by cumming’s friends and contemporaries William Carols Williams, Robert Frost, and Ezra Pound.*Look at art by Paul Cezanne and Matisse, two artists that inspired e e cummings by their unique way of seeing and creating art.*If there is time, take a museum trip and see works by either of these artists in real life.*Listen to music by Igor Stravinsky a composer who influenced cummings with his revolutionary style of music.*Spend some time learning about WWI as e e cummings spent time in France as an ambulance driver in WWI and it had a tremendous impact on his life.
*Explore a bit of the poetry produced by the WWI poets. These poems are hard because they are about war. But a few of them would be such a valuable way to help my kids better understand this part of e e’s life. These are the ones we will read. “In Flanders Field” “War Girls” “Everyone Sang” (and these poets are sure to be a poetry study later on when my kids are a bit older.)*Create a final art piece of a favorite e e cummings poem, hand lettered and/or illustrated.

Final thoughts:
I plan to do this poetry study over the course of a month, but you could spend as much or as little time with it as you like. The activities I have listed for the first 4 days could certainly be divided up into smaller chunks, but I liked starting with a good dose of the poet and his works, to get the kids more invested before we branched off into studying all the other things connected to the poet.
The additional activities are ones you can do as you see fit. Some might not appeal to your kids. Or you. In fact, you could just spend a week with e e cummings and do only that first activity I have described — read the book, learn about word choice, and illustrate the poem.
What I hope you’ll take away from this is that teaching your kids poetry does not have to be scary, difficult or boring. I want to help you make it interesting and fun!
Whether you choose to go big or small with this, I hope you”ll find at least some of this stuff useful!
Because I sure had fun writing it all down for you.

“The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one is with another who shares the same books.”Katherine Mansfield

I love the way listening to audio books brings all my kids together.
Yesterday they spent the entire afternoon in the boys’ room listening to The Last Battle, a book they’ve read and listened to several times before. But we like to listen to our favorite books again and again. It just makes us love them more.
They were all in there together, drawing, building Legos, or just laying on the bed and soaking up the beautiful language and storytelling of one of CS Lewis’ masterpieces.
We don’t use earphones or earbuds when we listen to books, at home or in the car, because I love the way listening to a story together builds our relationships with one another.

The moment we put those ear buds in, we are shutting ourselves off from everyone around us. I work very hard to cultivate relationships within my family and so this “shutting off from one another” is the exact opposite of what I want to see happening.
Instead, I love to hear my kids laughing over a story together, or discussing the book as they listen to it together. We aren’t all separated from each other–we’re enjoying time together. I love the way, everyone is drawn into a room when an audio book is turned on. We’re pulled together by the magic of a good story.
We have beautiful conversations about whatever book we are listening to. Everyone chimes in, and we all relate to the book in different to ways, but we’re experiencing it together, which creates such special bonds. We talk in the language of the books we’ve read. I often hear my kids say things like this, “you know that part in The Hobbit…” Or, “it’s like in Caddie Woodlawn when…”The books we read together become shared experiences and create cherished memories just as family vacations and adventures do. In fact, the books we’ve read together are some of our favorite adventures.

I have always felt that putting something in, or over, our ears separated us from one another and I’ve never liked that. Even at 11 or 12 when I got my first Walkman, I didn’t like listening to it in the car because I was missing out on the conversation my parents were having. I hated sitting next to my mom while she drove, my headphones on, and not talking to her. It felt almost rude to me. But even more, l knew I wasn’t experiencing life with her. There would be no conversations about the simple things we saw as we drove, or the deeper conversations that might happen as we sat next to each other.
There wouldn’t be singing along together to the Sam Cook cassette playing in our hunk of junk Dodge Dart while my mom drove my brother and I to math tutoring. There’d be no laughing over silly stories together There wouldn’t be learning how to sit together in silence, each having our own thoughts, yet fully comfortable together in the quiet.

Building relationships is certainly easier when we are fully engaged with one another.
I suppose all those things played a part in my decision to keep our book time free from ear buds and headphones. It’s not that those things are bad in and of themselves. Or even that using them is bad. It’s just that for us, the experience of being together without them is better.

So how does this life style decision play out in our family, practically speaking?
Truthfully there is no grumbling about listening to books together because it’s something they’ve always done. This is our way of life and they don’t seem to mind it at all. The only problem that occurs occasionally is that someone is being too loud and interrupting the book. Then that person is asked to be quiet or leave the room. And the problem is solved.

We get most of our books from our subscription to Audible. This does have a monthly fee, but I consider it an essential part of our kids’ education and to our family life, so it is 100% worth the money. I get two credits to use a month and very rarely use more than those credits That means I do not spend anything beyond my monthly subscription fee. Sometimes we can purchase a whole series for one credit, like all the Ramona Quimby books. Or we purchase lots of long books, so we really make those credits count.

Our Audible books can be played on any computer or phone, so the kids can listen to them just about anywhere.
They often have the computer set up in the living room and gather there to listen to books.
They can also listen in their rooms on the laptop or on our family iPod.
We borrow books on cd from the library often and those get played on Lilly’s Hello Kitty “boom box” or on the computer.
No one has to stay in a room and listen to a book if they’d rather be doing something else.
Sometimes one kid is inside listening to a book while the others are playing outside or in another room drawing. But it just seems that once a book is turned on, they all just gravitate to where it is playing.
My kids have a hard time resisting stories.

We also listen to books in the car all the time.
My kids don’t mind long drives because they get to listen to books. In fact, short drives are far more troubling to them because they want to listen to the book longer.

Everyone takes turn choosing the books we listen to. Or we choose one together.
Occasionally there might be a groan when Davy picks “Tales of Brer Rabbit” agin. But mostly they are happy with each other’s book selections.
They just love listening to books so much that they are happy for every new book that is chosen.Or a beloved old book revisited.

Beyond the relational ways listening to books together has helped our family, it has also had an impact in other ways:
1. We’ve grown our reading skills because of listening to challenging books from a very young age. My younger kids are always listening to books high above their reading level. But because of the constant exposure to these books, their comprehension skills and vocabulary are through the roof. We also listen to all our books unabridged. It has never proven to be a problem for them–even with the most challenging books. They are building skills to become great readers.
2. Everyone is exposed to a variety of genres, and authors they might otherwise not choose. Each of us has our favorite books of course, but since we are listening to books together, we are kept from choosing the same types of books over and over again. My kids are open to reading just about anything, because they’ve experienced so many different types of great books.
3. We’ve learned the art of listening and paying attention. Listening to books that are challenging has taught all my kids the skill of being a good listener. They have to pay attention in order to understand what is going on in a story that may have lots of characters, an involved plot, advanced vocabulary, or complex sentence structure.
4. We’ve learned the importance of asking questions. Many of the books we listen to are higher level books. That means the younger kids will often stop and ask questions about what is going on, who a certain character is, or even say something like, “wait, what just happened?” If they were reading or listening alone, there would be no one to ask questions of, and I think the temptation would be to just stay lost. But because we’re listening together, asking questions is a normal part of the reading experience.
5. We’ve learned the skill of summarizing, translating, re-telling , and explaining. As we listen to books together, and questions are asked, those questions must be answered. That means my kids are learning how to explain things to one another, and how to summarize what someone just missed or didn’t understand. Best of all, they are doing it in a natural, real life way.
6. My kids are learning the joy and pleasure that comes from talking about books. The exchange of ideas and thoughts that come to us as we read (listen to ) a book together is a valuable skill that will translate to so many other parts of their life. It’s teaching them to be critical thinkers who can then discuss their thoughts. That’s a very practical part of this journey that I appreciate. But as I said before, they are also learning the joy and pleasure of discussing books. That to me is of great value as well. In fact, it may be my favorite part of this whole journey. Because there are few things I love to do more than talk about a book with my favorite little readers.

Now to get you started, here is a list of some of our favorite audio books.

Books for older kids (but even my youngest has enjoyed listening to):*The Yearling narrated by Tom Stechschulte
*The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy narrated by Rob Inglis
*The Princess and the Goblin narrated by Ian Whitcomb
*Johnny Tremain narrated by Grace Conlin
*Littel Women narrated by Kate Reading
*Caddie Woodlawn narrated by Roslyn Alexander
*The Borrowers series narrated by Rowena Cooper
*Father and I Were Ranchers (and the following books in this series) narrated by Ralph Moody
*Danny Champion of the World narrated by Peter Serafinowicz
*The Wind and the Willows narrated by Michael Hordern
*The Merry Adventures of Robinhood narrated by David Thorn
*The Chronicles of Narinia narrated by various narrators

These books are all available on Audible.
But you might be able to find them at your local library or on the site LibriVox, which offers many books to download for free.

I hope this glimpse into the way we experience books as a family will encourage you to listen to more books together. You don’t have to totally ditch those earbuds.But I promise the benefits that come when you share a book together as a family will make you want to tune into one another more, and tune out less.
Remember, you don’t have to go on fancy vacations, or grand adventures to create memories with your family. Making memories can be as simple as popping a bowl of popcorn and settling down with a fabulous audio book. You’ll laugh together, wonder together, and if you’re like my family, cry together. Best of all, listening to a book takes some time, so you’ll get to revisit that together time again and again until the book is done.
Its magic!
Don’t underestimate the power of books to bring people together.
For the love of (audio) books,

Greta
*For more on my love of books, be sure to follow me on Instagram. You can find me @maandpamodern, right here.

On my first Mother’s Day, James was only 2 weeks old. And I had just been released from the hospital.
Again.

A few days before I had woken from an exhausted, new momma sleep, aware that something was dreadfully wrong with my body.
I stumbled to the bathroom and when I switched on the light, I saw my pajama pants were covered in blood. I ran frantically through the house, looking for the phone. I started to call my doctor but decided 911 was a better choice at the moment. And then I laid down in the bathtub because I didn’t want to make a mess on the bathroom floor.
I still remember my conversation with the 911 operator.
“Where are you now?” she asked me.
“In the bathtub.”
“Is there water in it?”
“A little bit.”
“OK, I want you to climb out of the tub and lay on the floor. I don’t want you standing and I don’t want you getting cold because I don’t want you going into shock. Can someone cover you with a blanket?”
By that time Aaron was in the bathroom with me, terrified and trying to help, and holding a baby James who had woken up from the commotion.

Then the paramedics came, and I remember the sweet, comforting presence of a female paramedic. She made sure to tell me how sweet James was. After a few minutes she gently told me I needed to go to the hospital because I wasn’t supposed to be bleeding like this.
“I’ve had babies,” she said. “This isn’t supposed to happen. But your doctor will help you and you are going to be OK.”
Her care for me comforted me in those moments of fear.
They loaded me into the ambulance and closed the doors.
As I watched Aaron and James through the windows, growing smaller and smaller as we drove away, I had never felt more alone than I did at that moment.

After several hours in the ER, they were unable to stop my hemorrhaging. i was passing blood clots the size of softballs. My blood pressure was dropping. And things were feeling scary.
They gave me an iv and a blood transfusion.
Then they prepped me for surgery.
All this time Aaron had been in and out of my room with James in his arms.
The ER nurses kept tying to take care of James for him, but he staunchly refused to let go of his newborn son.
But those nurses were wonderful, still wanting to help.
They went up to labor and delivery to get a breast pump. They wanted me to feed James before I was out during and after surgery.
They brought it into the room and hooked me up.
And there I was, laying in a hospital bed, shirtless, with an IV in one arm, and a blood transfusion in the other,
On one breast Aaron held James up to breastfeed, and on the other the nurse held the breast pump.“So this is what it is to be a mother,” I thought. It takes everything you’ve got. And then some.

Surgery was successful, and my doctor told me she’d never had a case like that.
I’d never been so grateful for modern medicine.
It saved my life.
I would be there to see my baby grow up.
Life had never felt more precious.

I came home scared, exhausted, and emotional basket case.
But then my mom came to stay with us.
And everything was better.
That Sunday morning Aaron surprised us with my favorite scones and coffee for breakfast. He bought us both sweet bouquets and gave us Mothers Day cards.
Mom and I sat around all day, holding the baby, eating, and watching one Tom Hanks movie after another: Sleepless in Seattle, You’ve Got Mail, Cast Away, Catch Me If You Can, and That Thing You Do.
I rested and we reveled in my sweet, brand new baby. It was peaceful and calm and one of my most favorite Mothers Days.

A few days later, it was time for her to go home. As I stood on the porch and watched her drive off, I felt almost as alone as I did that night in the ambulance.
I needed her.
I felt so silly, crying about it. I was a grown woman. But it didn’t matter.We never stop needing our mothers.

Blame it on my new mommy emotions, but I wanted her to stay and take care of me forever.
And in a way, she has.
She has helped me after the births of all my babies. She prays for me in the delivery room. She remembers the baby we lost. She comforted me in my worries over first fevers, and later, over disobedient children.
She loves my babies as much as I do. She knows their favorite foods and how to take care of them when their sick.

My life is full of the love, wisdom and strength of my mom.
And of many other mothers.
There is Cathy, my mom’s best friend and my second Mom.
Cathy has stood by me almost my entire life, loving me, laughing with me, and caring for me.
She has helped me deliver my babies and walked with me through deep waters.
I love her dearly.
There is my mother in law, who gave me the sweetest husband in the world.
There is my sister, who always says yes to fishing, the skate park or the ball field with her boys. Even after a full day of work, she says yes. She is one of the most giving moms I know. She has taught me so much about being a mother.
There are the moms I knew growing up who loved their kids and loved me because I was their kid’s friend.
And there are all my mom friends, too many of you beauties to name, who encourage and inspire me in this journey daily. They keep me going.

Mother’s Day is special to me because being a Mom changed my life to a better that I never could have imagined. But also because I am blessed by the many Moms I know who show me everyday what real love is.Mother love–there is nothing like it.

“All I am, or hope to be, I owe to my mother.” Abraham Lincoln

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mothers in my life that I love so very much.

We love waterfall hikes.
In fact, they rank among our most favorite kinds of hikes.
Southern California is notoriously dry, and has been even more than usual for the past few years.
However, there are still some wonderful waterfalls to be found if you look hard enough.
And given the extra rain we got this winter, the waterfalls are flowing better than they have been for the past couple of years.
This spring has been wonderful for us in finding lots of full creeks to splash in.
And yesterday we found a full waterfall.
It was glorious!

We hiked the Millard Canyon trail to the falls.
The trail has been closed for a number of years due to a fire.
It is recently re-opened and still uncrowded and beautiful.
No trash or graffiti like on some of our other favorite hikes in this area.
We are hopeful it stays that way.

The trail up to the falls was lush and green, and full of rocks to scramble over.
At some parts the creek splashed along beside the trail and sparkled in the sun.
It was pretty perfect.

Also along the trail were these beautiful white flowers, actually a weed, called Mexican Devils.
It is considered an invasive weed and can take over native plants.
It can also cause respiratory illness in horses.
Its really pretty, but after seeing how much of it there was along the trail, it is easy to see how it could choke out native plants.

We also found many, many frogs at the waterfalls.
And let me tell you, it was quite a thrill!
We found this guy, the California Tree Frog.

These frogs are nocturnal and take shelter in rock crevices near water during the day.
This was the first time we had seen these frogs and when the kids saw a number of them hanging out inside some cracks in the rocks around the waterfall, they were so thrilled.
I encouraged the kids to handle them gently, while they looked closely at them for observation, and then to let them go.
It was so much fun to meet a new kind of frog!
FYI: all reptiles and amphibians carry salmonella in their digestive tracts.
I learned that the hard way when I got salmonella after touching a baby turtle.
Not fun!
I always make the kids wash with hand sanitizer after catching any of these little creatures.
Of course, this was the one day I was out of hand sanitizer.
Thank goodness for my other mama friends coming to my rescue.

There are high, rock walls around the canyon and waterfall.
The big boys, of course wanted to explore those, and so we did a little bouldering.
We got pretty high up one of the steep canyon walls before I looked down and thought maybe we should stop climbing.
Even though all of us really wanted to go on.
But those rocks were slippery, and went crashing down the hill when our feet knocked them loose.
I didn’t want to knock out any kids at the bottom of the cliff.
Nor did I want to see one of the boys go rolling down the hill.

So we found a less rocky place and slid down the dirt hill on our feet.
Those boys are growing more adventurous by the week!
Its a lot of fun.
But also……a little nerve-wracking!
I may need to invest in safety gear for them and their climbing!

I also spent a lot of time chasing these little guys.
They ran up and down the trail like mountain goats.
I’m not kidding!
I think they are going to be even more comfortable chasing and finding adventure than the big boys, because they’re getting an earlier start.
I love that they get to have these days of fun and exploring with their best buddies.

After the 1.5 mile back to and from the falls, our awesome group of mamas and kids felt like we really hadn’t hiked much.
So we decided to explore another trail.
It was quiet and peaceful and green and followed along the same sparkly, dancing stream.
Oh it was just heavenly!
The big thrill was when a couple of the little girls found a couple of salamanders swimming in the water.
We were all so excited!
The big, brave Daddy that was with us for the day picked them up and let the girls hold them.
I felt brave too and held one too.
It was smooth and soft and a little slimy feeling from being wet.
It had a bright orange stomach.
And after the pair were returned to the water, Davy and I watched them begin to wrestle.
Turns out salamanders return to the pools they were born in to “wrestle” or mate.
They swim together under the water, twisting and turning and getting busy!
It was pretty cool to watch.
This spring has been really great to us for seeing lots of mating and eggs, and brand new babies everywhere we go.
Nature is a great teacher.

But I guess I needed to learn a little bit more about nature.
Because we learned that the salamanders we so excitedly held yesterday are actually poisonous.
They were California Newts, and the most toxic of all salamanders.
I had no idea.
Neither did the other mamas in our group.

James, however, knew and told me when we got in the car that salamanders are poisonous and we shouldn’t have held them.
He learned it from the wilderness survival guides he likes to read.
My friend Karen, whose daughter was also holding the newt, texted me and said, “are you having any symptoms? These salamanders are toxic!”
Thankfully we were all fine and learned a nature lesson we won’t forget.

Form now on I’ll always remember not to pick up salamanders, that I must always check that I have hand sanitizer in my bag, and that I need to read a wilderness survival handbook STAT!
Time to earn my nature mama cred.
And to be like my Boy Scout son, and BE PREPARED.

We sure do love our adventures!
This is learning at its very best.
“The world is our classroom.”

The longer I use nature study as the means of teaching my kids science, the more I love it.
It lays such a great foundation for them for further study of the many different branches of science.“Consider, too, what an unequalled mental training the child-naturalist is getting for any study or calling under the sun — the powers of attention, of discrimination, of patient pursuit, growing with his growth, what will they not fit him for?” (Charlotte Mason Vol. 1, p. 61).

When we first began home schooling,we did nature study on our own.
We’d collect nature finds out on our weekly hikes, come home research them, and then the kids would draw and paint them in their nature notebooks.
It was good, but after a time, I was wanting to do more.

So several years ago our home school group decided to engage in a more focused method of nature study together.
We’d chose a topic for each term, let our kids to study this topic together, add specific focus to some of our weekly field trips, and then have the kids share presentations with one another at the end of each term.
The focus of our group is for fellowship with one another each week, spending time in and studying nature together, to adventure and learn together.
We weren’t wanting to change into a science co-op.
We just wanted to add a more focused nature/science study to what we were already doing.

With a little planning and thought, our vision became a reality.
It has been a fantastic way for our kids to study science together!

Here is how our group does it:
Every term we pick a new science topic to study.
To find those topics, we follow the nature study schedule from Ambleside Online.
You can find the nature study schedule here.

There are 3 topics of study per year, one for fall, winter and spring.
Each family approaches the study in their own way.
We do share resources and ideas, books, websites, and lessons that are working for us.
And when we plan our schedule of field trips, we all try to keep in mind any hikes, classes, or trips that fit into our topic of study and then add those to our schedule.
Its been a great way to add some more focus to our nature study together.

For example, when we studied weather, we visited the campus of UCLA and attended a class taught by the head of the meteorology department.
We also visited a historic lighthouse.
When we studied stars and sky, we visited the Griffith Observatory and Planetarium in Los Angeles.
And we went to a rocket launch at Vandenberg Air Force Base!
For reptiles, we visited a reptile zoo, and for brooks, rivers, and oceans, we visited tidal flats, some creeks, and tide pools.
For cultivated crops, we visited an olive packing house.
And even on field trips that aren’t specifically focused on our nature study, we can’t help finding ourselves thinking about the topic and seeing it everywhere we go.
Its really fun!

At the end of the term, the kids all do presentations related to the topic of study.
Again, its up to each family how they want to choose the topic.
It seems like most of us just let the kids lead the way picking something that really interests them and is somehow related to our topic.
And they have a great time doing their presentations.
As they have presented on bugs, birds, trees and outer space, they have made dioramas, sculptures, home made food, smoothies, games, and lots of presentation boards.

Of course, standing up in front of a group and presenting also gives our kids those all important socialization skills.
I’m sorry. 😂
After a lifetime of being asked about socialization, I just can’t resist a little teasing when the topic comes up.
I assure you, presenting to a group of moms, toddlers, pre-schoolers, and an array other, multi-aged elementary students, is a real boost to those social skills.
In fact, our biggest problem is that our kids are all so social, its hard to get them to stop presenting or asking questions after each presentation.
They’ve got this socialization thing in the bag.

Doing nature study this way has been a really great for my kids.
They love learning like this with their friends.
Its given them more focus when we are out together each week.
And more excitement as they discover things together.

For us moms, it hasn’t added any extra work.
In fact, I have found its really given me more direction and excitement to study nature and science this way.
Its become one of my absolute favorite subjects to teach to my kids.
Because basically I am learning alongside them.
I never loved science as a kid, but I sure do now!“If getting our kids out into nature is a search for perfection, or is one more chore, then the belief in perfection and the chore defeats the joy. It’s a good thing to learn more about nature in order to share this knowledge with children; it’s even better if the adult and child learn about nature together. And it’s a lot more fun.” Richard Louve

For more of my thoughts on nature study, and nature notebooks, you can read my post about it here.

///This is the second post in a series about teaching poetry.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing reasons why we need to teach poetry to our kids, explaining how to discuss a poem, offering lesson ideas, as well as giving you plenty of resources that will help in your journey of making poetry a part of your everyday learning. I look forward to your comments and questions, and I hope very much these articles will be useful to you.
Now let’s get started!///

“Poetry is the best words in the best order.” Samuel Taylor Coleridge“Poetry is the journal of a sea animal living on land, wanting to fly in the air.” Carl Sandburg“Poetry lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar.” Percy Bysshe Shelley“Poetry is truth in its Sunday clothes.” Joseph Roux“Poetry is what in a poem makes you laugh, cry, prickle, be silent, makes your toe nails twinkle, makes you want to do this or that or nothing, makes you know that you are alone in the unknown world, that your bliss and suffering is forever shared and forever all your own.” Dylan Thomas

There is a philosophy out there that says a poem should never be discussed.
That a poem should simply be read, the words savored, and then the book closed.
And the poem put away.
The proponents of this philosophy would say that the poem exists in and of itself, and that to pick it apart, to analyze it, and to talk it to death, destroys it.
I beg to differ.

I think that talking about a poem makes it even more enjoyable than just reading it.
The poem is beautiful in and of itself.
But if there is a meaning or lesson hidden in the words of the poem, I want to ferret it out.
If there are beautiful word pictures the poet has created, I want to pull those out and celebrate their loveliness.
If I am confused by a poem, I want help figuring out the parts I don’t understand.
If the poem makes me laugh, I want to share that part with others and laugh with them.
Things are more enjoyable when they are shared.
That includes poetry.

When we are moved by something we want to share it with others.
And the way we share a poem with someone is by talking abut it.
Not talk it to death, of course.
But to discuss it, study it, think on it, and yes, also to rejoice in its beauty.
I think the magic of a poem only grows when we talk about it together.

But how do we do that?
How do we go from reading a poem to our kids, which is sometimes a difficulty in and of itself, to actually talking about a poem with them?
The first thing is knowing what we can’t do.
Which is read them a poem and then say, “well, what do you think?”
At the most you might get an, “I liked it”.
At worst you might get a shoulder shrug.
Talking about poetry, just like talking about any art form, is something that must be taught.

You are the leader in this.
You are the one who gets the discussion going, and who keeps it going when there are long, awkward silences.
Because those will happen.
At least at first.
It takes time to learn how to talk about poetry, and then to feel comfortable doing it, and finally to enjoy it.
I encourage you to persevere.
It will be worth it!

Here are some tips for getting your discussion going:

*First, read the poem aloud a couple times.
I like to read the poem once, and then say, “I’m going to read it again. Sometimes it helps us to actually hear a poem better if we read it more than once.”

*Next, ask some easy questions about the poem to get the discussion going.
What is the setting? A farm, the woods, the city, inside or outside?
What season is it?
What time of day is it?
What colors are in the poem?
Can you describe what the animals, people, or other characters look like?

*Then, how does the poem feel?Is it a happy poem or a sad one?
Is it slow and thoughtful?
Does it move quickly?
Does it feel hurried?
Is it a cheery poem that makes you feel glad?
Or does it make you slow down and really think?

*Next, what kind of poem is it?Is it a describing kind of poem?
Is it a poem with a lesson or a moral at the end?
Is it a poem that wants to teach you something?
Is it a poem that is meant to make you laugh?
Is it a poem that is just meant to help you see something in a new way?
Or is it a poem that tells a story?

*Now tackle unfamiliar words in the poem.
Ask your child if there are words in the poem he doesn’t know.
Have him guess the meaning of those words. I
If his guesses are incorrect, have him look those words up, or tell him the definition.
Read the poem again with the new understanding of the meaning of those words.
Does it help you understand the poem better or see new things?

*Lastly, have everyone share their favorite part or thing about the poem.Be sure to share yours.
It can be as simple as a single line, or an image that captured your imagination.
Or you could talk about how the poem made you feel, or what it taught you.
If the poem wasn’t your favorite, its OK to say that.
BE HONEST!
None of us share the same taste
So give your children the freedom to tell you if a poem didn’t really resonate with them.

*If you’d like, you can add a discussion about the poem’s meaning.But this isn’t neccesary or even applicable for every poem.
Some poems really are just a descriptive journey and that is their purpose.
However, if you are struck by the message the poet is conveying through the poem, share it with your kids.
And don’t be afraid to ask them if they heard a message in the poem too.
On the other hand, if you are completely lost when it comes to the meaning of the poem, share that.
Once again, BE HONEST!
Just because you are the grown up doesn’t mean you have all the answers.
I think it helps our kids tremendously when they see we struggle with things just like they do.
Be human in front of them and let them see that you are on a learning journey together.

*You don’t have to do all of this every time.Don’t let this list make you feel like you have to do all these things every time you read poetry together.
You may just choose a few questions from the list and talk about the poem for a few minutes.
But imagine you are doing that every day, and the many, rich discussions you are having as a result.
Some poems will really strike a chord with you and the discussion will last longer and be more animated.
While other poems won’t have the same effect, and will only merit a short discussion.
That’s OK.
The value comes not in the length of the discussion, or even the depth, but that poetry is being read daily, enjoyed, and talked about together.
As the discussions happen again and again, your children are experiencing an exposure to a literary world that will grow them as readers, writers, thinkers, and listeners.
And most of all, as people.
That is a truly valuable outcome.

Resources and Ideas For Further Study:
If you find a poem that really strikes yours or your child’s interest, don’t hesitate to learn more about it.
Spend some time researching the poet who wrote it.
Learn when she wrote it–at what point in her life, and what was happening in the world around her when she wrote it.
You can even look for other people’s thoughts on the poem.
See if you can find some critical analysis on the poem.
It never hurst to stretch yourself and learn more.

If you’d like some more inspiration for teaching poetry to your kids, including lesson plan ideas, I highly recommend this book.
You can buy it on Amazon here.
Or you can download it for free here.
There is a LOT in this book, and I haven’t gotten through it all yet.
And I don’t agree with everything I’ve read either.
But it has given me much to think about and opened my mind to new ideas.
Some of my favorite essays so far have been:The Read Aloud Handbook (a must read)The Process of Opening GiftsTeaching Children to Write PoetryThe Care and Feeding of a Child’s ImaginationRecitation, Imitation, Stillness

There are some great lesson ideas too.
One of the ones I am excited to try is Street Sonnets.
It sounds like a fun one for writing spring poetry.
I’m also excited to try the lesson, Image LIst.
I hope you’ll try some of the lessons with your kids and share with me what you liked best.

Lastly, if you are looking for a great anthology of children’s poems that you can access for FREE, I’d love to direct you to the Ambleside Online website.
This Year One Poetry Anthology is a list of poems divided up by month.
So you can read seasonal poems, and poems that relate to particular holidays, as well as general poems.
You can simply read the poem from your phone or computer, or you can download and print a month’s or a year’s worth of poems.
It is a fantastic resource.
And did I mention it is FREE?!!
You can find it here.

I truly hope these Poetry 101 Posts are helpful to you.
If they are, I’d love to hear from you.
And I’d love if you let me know other things you are looking for from this series.
Lastly, if you are enjoying these articles, I’d love it if you share them around the inter webs. .
Truly, it would mean the world to me.
Thanks so much!
I’ll be back next week with the next article: Learning and Using Poetic Devices

///This is the first post in a series about teaching poetry.
Over the course of the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing reasons why we need to teach poetry to our kids, offering lesson ideas to help you accomplish that, explaining how to discuss a poem, as well as giving you plenty of resources that will help in your journey of making poetry a part of your everyday learning. I look forward to your comments and questions, and I hope very much these articles will be useful to you.
Now let’s get started!///

Why Teaching Poetry Matters

“Poetry is the best words in the best order.”Samuel Taylor Coleridge
“Poetry is language at its most distilled and most powerful.”
Rita Dove
“The crown of literature is poetry.”
W. Somerset Maugham
“A poet is, before anything else, a person who is passionately in love with language.”
W. H. Auden“A thousand thoughts that burn, come to us on the wings of verse.”Charlotte Mason

I have always had an affection for poetry.
I had favorite poetry books that I loved reading when I was a little girl.
I have them still, and they are treasures to me.
The poems I read were of the simple sort, never very long or complex.
But as I grew older, I wanted to read more challenging poems, like Anne Shirley and her friends, reciting “The Lady of Shalott.”
I tried to read those poems, but it was always a struggle since I lacked the tools for reading them with any kind of pleasure or understanding.

You see, my early years of school were seriously lacking in poetry.
I don’t recall reading or learning about poetry in my earliest elementary days.
And when I began being home schooled, my mom hadn’t read, or even been exposed to much poetry herself, and therefore felt the difficulty in teaching it to me.
Beyond those simple poems I read as a little girl, I really didn’t read poetry again until college, when I began to study literature and writing.
That was when I truly fell head over heals in love with it.
Thanks to a few professors who shared their passion for poetry with me, my understanding grew, and therefore so did my love.

My experience is a pretty common one for most people.
Except for the part about falling in love with poetry.
For most people, that doesn’t happen.
After all, how many of us have said or heard it said, “I just don’t understand poetry,”
Or, “I stopped liking poetry in high school.”
There seems to be a great gap between the innate love of poetry that every small child has, and the aversion many adults feel towards it.Why does this happen? And how can we prevent it from happening to our kids?

To begin with, we must start reading poetry to our kids when they are young, and we can’t ever stop.
Poetry exposure can’t just be some Mother Goose and Shel Silverstein when they are young, and then a long dry spell until high school or college.
At which point, we hand them a book full of poems by TS Elliot, Keats, and Emily Dickinson and expect them to dive right in.
That’s like teaching a kindergartener to do simple addition, doing no math for 10 years, and then handing them an algebra book and telling them to get busy.
Not only will they be lost, but they won’t find any enjoyment in the work either.We can’t expect our kids to love something when we aren’t giving them anything to fall in love with.
Loving poetry requires constant exposure.
“The only way to grow poetry is to make it a habit.” (J. Patrick Lewis)One of the best ways to make poetry more accessible is to start reading it to your children when they are young.
Little children are naturally drawn to poetry.
They like the rhythmic, musical quality of poetry.
They like the way rhymes make things easy to memorize.
Above all, they will develop warm associations with poetry while it is read to them from your lap.
That is a sweet, sweet gift to give them.

At the beginning, it is so important to help your children simply enjoy poetry.
“Unless a poem says something to a child, tells him a story, titillates his ego, strikes up a happy recollection, bumps his funny bone—in other words, delights him—he will not be attracted to poetry regardless of the language it uses.” (Patrick Groff)Read them fun poetry, silly poetry, even nonsense poetry.
Poetry doesn’t have to be serious to be “real”.
Laughing together over a silly poem is a surefire way to get your kids to enjoy reading poetry.Read them poetry that tells a story.
You’d be surprised at the way your children can follow along with a long ballad.
After all, a ballad is simply a story told in verse form, and they know how to follow a story.Read your children poetry about things they know.
Read about the seasons, and birds, and the sky.
Poetry helps our children notice and love the natural world around them because it is so often celebrated in poetry.Read them poems about love and friendship, and families and pets.
Poetry helps children access their emotions in a positive way, when they read poems that praise and honor these relationships.Read them poems that are illustrated.
The pictures add greatly to the understanding of a poem, but even more to the enjoyment of it.Memorize poems with your children.
One of the very best ways to enjoy poetry is to read it again and again until it is committed to memory.
Then that poem becomes a friend.
One we call upon in times of happiness or sorrow, or simply because the way the words sound together gives us pleasure.
By making poetry reading a joy rather than a chore, we are laying in our children the foundation for a life long affection for poetry.

As they grow older, continue reading poetry as often as possible.Poetry shouldn’t be a unit study or even a once a week thing “when we have time”.
Poems should be read and enjoyed together every day!
“If we wish children to believe poetry is important, the worst way to teach it is to develop a two-week poetry block, teach it, and then forget it—because that’s what children will do with it. The best way is to incorporate meaningful poetry throughout the day.” (Jim Trelease)
This doesn’t mean you have to create incredible poetry lessons for your children every day.
Its as simple as having a few good poetry anthologies on hand and reading one poem a day from them over breakfast, at dinner, or before bedtime.
Or it can be part of the school day, maybe first thing in the morning, after devotions, when your kids are in a thoughtful mood.
We read a poem or two at the start of most school days.
After our prayer, hymn, and devotional time, I read a poem aloud to all the kids.
We generally talk about it for a few minutes, because discussing a poem is part of what we enjoy about poetry.
That is all there is to it.
It is very simple, yet I often feel at the close of our poetry time that we have had one of the best lessons I could have given them.Poetry makes us think.
And we should spend time thinking every day, shouldn’t we?

Once they reach school age, don’t drop poetry for other, “more important” subjects.I think most of us recognize the artistic merit of poetry.
But beyond that, poetry is often viewed as an extra, or even as fluff.
This couldn’t be farther from the truth!
And for every parent or teacher that wonders what the practical advantages of learning poetry are, I can assure you they are many.To begin with, reading poetry is one of the best ways to help your children become better readers of all kinds of literature, and also to become better writers.Here’s why:
Poetry requires a different kind of reading than simple prose.
Poetry demands more of the reader because everything isn’t explained for him.
Poetry often expresses big ideas in a condensed space.
Therefore, poetry asks the reader to think, and often, to think hard.
If you want to help your children develop reading skills, read them poetry.

Poetry also is extraordinarily visual.
Its like a painting made of words.
Therefore, as your children listen to and read poetry, they are being fed beautiful, visual, language.This encourages them to see those images in their mind, and to use their imagination to do it.
That is a critical reading skill.
It is also a skill that is increasingly lost in a digital age where everything is about the image being put in front of you, no imagination required.This exposure to descriptive, visual language will also help your children with their writing.
By hearing lines like this: “For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim” to describe a fish swimming through water, your kids can’t help but to incorporate this elevated, beautifully descriptive language into their own writing.
It won’t happen immediately, but that constant exposure to rich language will come out in their writing over time.

Also, more and more exposure to great poetry will aid your children in understanding other pieces of literature.
This won’t really happen until your child is older and reading more advanced poems, short stories, and novels, but it will be of great help to him then.
Writers like to make these things called literary allusions.
That is when they refer to another, well known piece of literature in the middle of their own piece of writing.
A working knowledge of famous poetry is helpful in understanding these literary allusions and therefore better understanding the piece of literature itself.

So, you see, there are practical reasons why we should teach poetry to our kids.
But I beg you not to allow yourself to become too distracted by these things.Because interacting with poetry only for the purpose of taking tests, writing papers, answering comprehension questions, and having some kind of measurable data to prove learning has taken place misses the very heartbeat of poetry.
Remember, we want to help our children build a relationship with poetry.
We want them to learn from it because they love it, not just because they’ve been told to read it or write about it.
There are so many things wonderful things reading poetry gives our children and many of them can’t be assessed.
But that doesn’t mean they don’t matter.“Teaching poetry is one important way to help children become human beings who are fully awake to the world.”
Megan McNamer

RESOURCES:
This resource list includes some of my favorite poetry books to add to your collection, a few poetry videos and cds, links to articles about teaching poetry, and helpful websites for teaching poetry.
There will be resources included with each article.

Helpful poetry websites:The Poetry Foundation (check out “Children’s Poetry” in the Resources section. There is so much good stuff there!Poetry Out Loud
(An organization dedicated to bringing back the art of poetry recitation. There are some fabulous poetry recitations for you and your children to listen to, as well as quick descriptions as to what kind of poem it is, or sometimes brief words about the poet. I spent a whole afternoon listening to these!
Go to “Poems and Performance” and then “Listen to Poetry”
Some of the best pieces were: The Power of Poetry, The Lake Isle of Innisfree,We Wear the Mask, Pied Beauty, Conveying emotion, with excerpts from Hamlet, David Mason on knowing poems by heart,Hope is the thing with feathers, To My Dear and Loving Husband,

Do you know Patricia St. John? She was a life long missionary, and the author of many wonderful books for children. I read all of them as a young girl, but never knew about this book, her autobiography, until recently.
It’s marvelous.

The writer of the forward for the book describes Patricia St. John as a “redemptive person”. Isn’t that a beautiful description of a person? That someone would meet PSJ and come away feeling that from her? I was moved to tears at the thought of what a wonderful woman she must have been to garner such a description.
Redemption is certainly the theme of all her children’s books so I can imagine she must have been like that in person as well.

One of my favorite parts of the book thus far is a story PSJ shares of her time working in a small village in Morocco. Each week she’d invite the ladies of the village to come to her house for tea and fellowship, and then she’d share the gospel with them.
One older lady, the village water carrier, came every week, enjoyed tea, and then promptly fell asleep when the bible message began. Her snores were very disruptive, but PSJ let her sleep, knowing how tired she must be from her hard daily work.
One day this woman stayed awake for the message. She seemed happier and less bowed under the weight of her buckets. “What has happened?” PSJ asked her.
The woman replied, “I heard the message you spoke for me last week. The one where your Jesus said, “come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden.” You were talking to me. I am the one who is heavy laden with these buckets of water. And all the next day I kept saying Jesus’ name over and over as I carried those buckets, And they didn’t feel so heavy. He helped me.”
PSJ smiled in wonder at the goodness of God.
This woman had heard the words Jesus spoke and then she fell asleep and didn’t hear the rest of the words PSJ had spoken. PSJ went on further to share that the heavy burdens Jesus took from is were our sins. He carries them from us and for us.
But this woman didn’t need to hear that. She needed to know that there was a God who cared for her physical burdens. A God who would meet her simple, physical needs.
She didn’t theology or doctrine.
And God knew that.He met her where she was.

I love that so much.
Because I have been there.
God has met me in the shower, where I hid my tears from my kids, and cried out my broken heart after a miscarriage and over a broken marriage.
God met m in the pages of The Chronicles of Narnia, where He showed me how much He loved and cared for me through the character Aslan. And what grace and forgiveness look like through the characters of Edmund and Eustace.
He met me as I read through the Jesus Storybook Bible with my kids, crying through every story that showed the mighty, healing, grace of a Savior who forgives.
He met me in a hospital room, in the gentle touch of a nurse, who washed blood from my legs and let me cry over a lost baby.
He met me atop a mountain, in the form of a hawk, hovering just over our heads for many minutes. Aaron and I were broken, bruised, and healing, and that hawk spoke to us a message of hope. He reminded us of a God Who brings miracles of beauty and grace, when it doesn’t seem like they could possibly be there.

None of these moments were in church, or came from deep, theological discussions.
They were, however, very much what I needed at the time.
God met me where I was,
He knew exactly what I needed from Him.
And He gave it to me.

I love my church, my pastor, and the way God ministers to me through both of them.
But I also love the way God knows me so deeply and personally that He brings me His love in many, many different ways.

He knows us.
He cares.
“You have searched me, Lord,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, Lord, know it completely.
You hem me in behind and before,
and you lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.
If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,”
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.”
Psalm 139: 1-12

If you are feeling weary and burdened, weighted down with care like that woman in the village, may you know the deep, abiding, caring love of God today.
You only need to call His name.

And remember, books change people.
The Good Book, and also so many others that God uses to speak to us.
Much love,
Greta